Dragonsoul Teaser
by UmbreonMessiah
Summary: A teaser for my next project, for all those who were/are interested. Behold the sequel to Dragonheart...or at least part of it.


**A/N: **Hey ladies and gents. Just to prove that I haven't really been asleep or dead since Dragonheart finished, I decided to show you a little teaser of what I've been working on lately. There's no guarantee when you'll see this in the actual fic, or if the actual fic will start any time soon, but you can at least get the jist of what I'm working with. Have fun and enjoy.

* * *

**Dragonsoul Teaser**

For the first time since entering the Land of Rain, Team Seven witnessed sunlight emerging victorious against the perpetually grey sky. The constant drumming of precipitation against the thick canopy of the forest left their ears almost as quickly as it had begun the day before, followed quickly by soft beams of sunlight that trickled down through gaps in the foliage. Sakura giggled, holding out her hands to catch the last droplets that filtered through the dense trees, leaving miniature rainbows in their wake. Kaiu and Uro simply rolled their eyes and pressed on, guiding the three shinobi from Konohagakure along the winding path.

"Keep close," Kaiu ordered. "These paths are slippery, and one wrong move will send you down into the gully."

"If that happens," her partner spoke up, "don't expect us to come get you. Nastier things than your 'Akatsuki' live down there."

"I don't remember paying you to scare us," Yakusho grimaced, nearly tripping over a muddy tree root.

"I don't recall _you_ paying us at all," Kaiu retorted. She held her hand out to check for any remnants of rain before removing her straw hat.

"Try to remember we're here on a mission," Jiyumaru scolded the dragon ninja. "If you want to start a diplomatic incident, be my guest, but don't do it with Konoha's hitai-ate on your head."

Yakusho twitched slightly, adjusting his new protector so that it covered his former shame more effectively. "Sorry."

On the other end of the procession, Naruto and Sakura were both keeping their eyes on the sole surviving Ryumoto. The pinkette leaned towards her teammate, keeping her voice low as she spoke.

"Have you noticed anything odd about Yakusho?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" Naruto replied, mindful of his volume.

"Haven't you noticed he's been acting a bit strange?" she continued. "A bit more antagonistic?"

"He's been back for all of about three days." Naruto held his hands behind his head, as though he was reclining on a chair. "You're worrying too much, Sakura-chan. I'm sure he's just a bit rusty when it comes to talking to others. I mean, he did spend an entire year by himself."

Sakura frowned and crossed her arms. "Are you sure? It's almost like he's more eager to get those books out of this country than we are."

The bag on Jiyumaru's back seemed to slouch in response to Sakura's words. "You're imagining things," Naruto laughed, waving his teammate off. "He's just being himself...which means he's being grumpy."

"Only you would put it that way," she grumbled. "Yakusho is _not_ grumpy."

"Oh really?" the blond laughed. "Then what is he?"

"He's..._eccentric_."

"You mean he's an asshole."

"As interesting as your conversation is," Uro piped up from behind them, "acting like I can't hear you is just insulting."

The two Konoha chuunin bolted upright, smiling nervously as they each wiped a single sweat drop from their brows.

* * *

For the next hour, silence dominated the journey. Jiyumaru continued to remain vigilant over the package they had been trusted with, whilst the others remained as inconspicuous as possible. From time to time Kaiu would turn her head to face Uro and one of them would nod, silently conveying to each other that neither of them detected any threats. Despite previous claims, the road did not seem any more dangerous than any the group had seen before.

After the first hour however, that all changed. Mud suddenly replaced solid footing, slowing the group of six down considerably. When Naruto attempted run up a nearby tree to increase their pace, Uro stopped him. The rainforests were home to some fairly devilish creatures, and Uro explained that the majority of them lived higher up, where mudslides and random flooding could not reach them. On top of it all, the bark was slippery from the recent storm, and would prove far more hazardous to their health than wading through ankle-high sludge. Bitterly, Naruto agreed, and kept to the ground.

The next hour saw the conditions only grow worse. The closer the party drew to the Rain Country's border, the less they were able to walk on actual road. The high path gave way to sloppy mud and tangled tree roots, making each step a risk. To their left stood towering trees that blocked out the very idea of the sun. To their right was the infinite gorge, obscured in mist and, according to their guides, impossibly deep. Formed from literal centuries of rainfall, no one in Amegakure had bothered to try and figure out how deep it went. One fall would mean the end of them. Beyond that were even more trees, spanning as far as their eyes could see.

After roughly three hours of travel, Kaiu and Uro called for the team to stop. The two Ame-nin sighed and relaxed against a pair of trees, wiping sweat from their brows and taking drinks from their canteens.

"See that single oak?" Uro gasped between drinks of water. "That's where the border between Rain and River is. We'll take a rest here then move on."

"What a relief," Sakura practically squealed. "I don't think I could stand another moment of this place."

"See Uro?" Kaiu grinned. "I told you the women from the Fire Country were soft."

Sakura balled her fist in protest, but instead of instigating a brawl she simply withdrew with an irritated whimper. Naruto and Jiyumaru suppressed their desire to laugh, but Yakusho openly chuckled at Sakura's misfortune. An angry glare from the medic-nin was all it took to quiet him down. All six shinobi took the time to rest and prepare for the next part of their trip.

During the break, Kaiu turned to Uro slowly, and nodded to him quite slowly. Uro responded by flashing his teeth in a beaming smile, pushing off the tree he had been resting on. Without warning he grabbed Naruto and Sakura by their arms and flung the pair and himself into the gully, disappearing under the veil of the fog.

Jiyumaru and Yakusho were momentarily stunned by the act, but quickly leapt to their feet as soon as they realized what had been going on. The mud slowed their strides, causing them to reach the edge of the road far too late to be of any assistance. They stared helplessly into the impenetrable clouds below, searching for their friends.

"What the hell!?" Yakusho snarled.

"There's no telling how far they're going to fall," Jiyumaru winced. "Even if we could follow them, I don't think we'll find much left."

"You two have far more important things to be worrying about than your friends."

* * *

The glistening greens and browns of the Rain Country vanished amidst a never-ending cloak of mist. The world around Naruto dissolved into grey, covering his vision in meaningless shapes and shadows, all blotted out by the thick smoke that blanketed the Rain Country's largest valley. He knew he was falling, but he couldn't tell from which direction. There was no down or up in the fog. There was only falling.

The shroud lifted suddenly, revealing a rather large ledge that jutted out from the side of the steep slope. Naruto slammed his feet against the slippery incline, feeling them plough into the soft, thick mud. Combined with his chakra, the wet earth served as an almost perfect way to slow his fall. By the time he reached the outcropping, he was barely moving at all, making his landing safer than almost any other he had ever made.

Naruto could already hear the sounds of a struggle as he made it to solid ground. Off to his right, Sakura was locked in battle with Uro, her usual red attire covered in patches of mud. The two of them traded blows, the rain ninja quickly learning that his taijutsu was no match for that of his female opponent. Sakura let out a very un-womanly yell as she drove her fist straight through his face, only managing to shatter a clone into wet pieces. Uro reappeared from the dull grey clouds above, plummeting kunai-first towards Sakura. Without much thought, Naruto hurled a full set of shuriken at their guide, forcing the traitorous ninja to abandon his attack to save his own life.

"Lucky bitch!" Uro hissed. His kunai sparked with each flying star he deflected, knocking him off course and forcing him to land rather roughly.

"Just what the hell are you doing!?" Sakura spat. "Are you trying to start a war?!"

"Shut up and die!" Uro barked.

The cloaked escort charged Sakura brazenly, only to be intercepted by a right hook from Naruto. The surprised shinobi simply rolled with the hit, pivoting off his feet and redirecting the momentum to change targets. Uro lunged at the orange-garbed chuunin, poised to land a crippling – if not deadly – blow. Naruto wheeled around just in time, managing to lose only a small part of his coattails in the attack. Uro was then rewarded for his troubles by the shadow clone that had been hiding behind Naruto. A surprisingly powerful roundhouse sent the rain ninja stumbling back into the real Naruto, who followed up the attack with a full powered backhand. This sent the outclassed shinobi heading towards Sakura, who gleefully sent him skyward with a bone-cracking uppercut. Naruto finished the impromptu brawl by following Uro into the air and sending him into the ground with a brutal axe kick to the gut. The fight ended as Uro's body disappeared in a cloud of dust and muck, leaving Naruto and Sakura ostensibly alone on the platform.

"That came out of nowhere," Naruto panted. "Were they planning this from the start?"

"That Konan lady did tell us that they were having problems with loyalty in Amegakure," Sakura recalled. "Maybe these two were just another bunch of traitors."

"That means Yakusho and Jiyumaru are probably fighting Kaiu," the blond surmised. "I guess we'd better find a way back up the slope and rejoin them."

Naruto nodded and joined Sakura as the two attempted to find footholds in the incredible hill, not noticing the twitch in Uro's body as they turned their backs to it.

* * *

Kaiu collapsed at the base of a large kapok tree, her senbon and various other ninja tools spilling out across the flame-dried dirt. Yakusho breathed a sigh of relief as the fire faded from the Dragon Fang and Jiyumaru sheathed his katana. The two shinobi shared an awkward glance before relaxing.

"That certainly was odd," Yakusho grunted.

"I agree," Jiyumaru mused. "It's almost like she didn't even realize she was doing it."

"Guess nobody told her that taking on two jounin-level ninja was a bad idea, huh?" Yakusho prodded Kaiu's unmoving frame with his sword, testing to see if she was still alive. When she failed to respond, he tilted his head back in Jiyumaru's direction. "We're gonna have to go back down there for Whiskers and Pinky."

"I'm well aware."

Yakusho was about to join Jiyumaru when Kaiu's body lurched. The act startled the dragon ninja, causing him to yelp and jump to his feet. Slowly but surely, the apparently dead Kaiu righted herself in an awkward display of jiggling limbs, looking at the pair with eyes that shimmered with despair.

"Help me..."

"What the hell!?" Naruto cried out as he shoved Uro back once more. "How are you still alive?!"

"H-help me!" the rain ninja choked. "I can't...see. I can't feel anything! HELP ME!"

"Naruto, what's wrong with him?" Sakura asked, her legs quaking. "It's like he's possessed!"

"I don't know," her teammate grimaced. "But it certainly isn't right."

"Oh gods!" Uro suddenly cried, grabbing his head. "It burns! It burns! What's happening...what's..."

"What's wrong?" Naruto moved towards Uro, holding out his arm in a comforting gesture. "It's okay, we're still here."

"GET BACK!"

* * *

"GET BACK!"

Yakusho yanked Jiyumaru backwards by his arm just as Kaiu's body erupted into hundreds of snakes. Slashing at the ground, Yakusho erected a pillar of flame to act as a wall between them and the serpents. The hiss and smell of burning flesh met the pair's noses as the snakes burned to cinders against the barrier, leaving nothing behind but melted skins and ash.

"What the hell!?" Jiyumaru shouted, getting back to his feet. "What was that?"

The wall of fire dissipated in time for Yakusho and Jiyumaru to see the reptiles slither together to form a pile. Each snake coiled over another, forming a writhing mass of scales and colourful patterns that continued to ascend upward. From within the heap a single yellow eye shone through, iris formed in an unmistakable slit that tore into the two shinobi.

Jiyumaru felt the world drop out from under him as soon as he looked into the eye. Colors gave way to a negative world where he saw himself dead, no more than a stain of blood on the roadway. The hearty lunch they had enjoyed in Amegakure found itself upon the forest floor as Jiyumaru fell to his knees and vomited. Everything he thought he knew had been erased in order to show him what he assumed was the future. He had no idea where he even was anymore.

_Did I just see my own death?_

"You'd follow me all the way out here?" Yakusho spat.

As the snakes slowly fell away from the solitary yellow eye, reality slowly returned to Jiyumaru's eyes. As he gazed upon the figure dressed in beige and with skin as pale as the moon, the ex-ANBU realized exactly where he was.

He was in his own worst nightmare.

* * *

Sakura shoved Naruto out of the way as Uro's body exploded, showering the landing in snakes of all shapes and sizes. Knocking the blond over saved him from the assault, but left Sakura to take it full force. In moments she was covered head to toe in the poisonous animals, screaming as they pulled her to the ground and consumed her in their writhing mass. Naruto was on his feet in less than a second, but even then he was too late. He pulled at the snakes, tossing them over the landing as he tried to get to Sakura, but by the time he had reached them, she was already gone. Their task complete, the snakes threw themselves down the cliff, disappearing into the fog.

"Wh-what the hell is going on?" Naruto gulped, feeling his pulse quicken. "Sakura, where are you?"

The platform went deadly silent for a moment, leaving Naruto alone in the mist. He was suddenly aware that someone or something was watching him from just beyond his vision. He felt his heart pounding in his chest as he looked left and right, trying to find his invisible stalker. Questions raced through his mind like bullets, bouncing off his brain in rapid succession. Why had the guides attacked them? Who was watching him? Where was Sakura?

A soft crunch alerted Naruto to a presence behind him. He did not even have the chance to turn before he heard a dark and familiar voice...

"Are you all right..."

...followed by the sound of a flock of chirping birds.

"..._scaredy cat_?"


End file.
